You've Got the Power

Networked video solutions key for managing critical infrastructure security risks

• By Mariann McDonagh
• Oct 01, 2006

WHEN managing security risks for a critical infrastructure organization, there is no room for error. The Patriot Act defines critical infrastructure as "the systems and assets, whether physical or virtual, so vital to the United States that the incapacity or destruction of such systems and assets would have a debilitating impact on security, national economic security, national public health or safety, or any combination of those matters."

Critical infrastructure organizations are responsible for developing security policies and procedures that will significantly reduce the risk of a lapse in service resulting from a variety of threats. Security managers at these facilities are charged with allocating resources and technologies to support the effective execution of these policies.

Critical infrastructure organizations are responsible for developing security policies and procedures that will significantly reduce the risk of a lapse in service resulting from a variety of threats. Security managers at these facilities are charged with allocating resources and technologies to support the effective execution of these policies.

Sources of Risk in Critical Infrastructure Security
The first step in managing security risks associated with critical infrastructure is to understand the conditions that contribute to this risk. Much of the risk associated with critical infrastructure security stems from the complexity and diversity of these facilities. There are three major characteristics associated with most critical infrastructures that enhance their exposure to security risks.

Organizational structure. Components of critical infrastructure are often owned and operated by a combination of public and private stakeholders. As a result, operational guidelines may be determined by public policy, profit strategies or a combination of the two. For example, shipping companies are responsible for loading and unloading millions of tons of raw material, finished goods and petroleum products each year to fuel global economies.

Speed and efficiency are the primary concerns of privately owned cargo transport companies. However, the laws of maritime security and international commerce that govern the waterways and harbors where these companies do business take precedence. These rigid regulations are enforced by multiple international government agencies and may drive up costs for private industry.

Geographic disparity and asset diversity. Critical infrastructure facilities typically span widespread, hard-to-reach geographic areas that cannot be efficiently or affordably monitored. Oftentimes, the assets being secured are as diverse as the environment in which they are located.

Consider the case of a company responsible for providing power and water services to a major city on the West Coast of the United States. The organization must manage critical components of the city's public utilities infrastructure, including a reservoir and water filtration plant, aqueducts stretching across hundreds of miles from a nearby mountain range and more than 200 miles of power distribution cables, transformers and base stations. Without a proactive approach to securing this expansive critical infrastructure, operations personnel face the risk of service interruptions or a host of other emergencies.

Security system interoperability and data access. The third source of risk in critical infrastructure organizations is related to knowledge-sharing limitations resulting from security systems and processes in place at many organizations. Critical infrastructure organizations are required by law to collect more security data than most companies. However, security personnel often lack the means to rapidly access, share and respond to the information being collected by access control, alarm and video surveillance networks. Security and emergency personnel are inundated with video images and various access control alarms, but lack the ability to rapidly pinpoint or fully understand the most critical events in order to respond effectively.

Information is only valuable if an organization's limited personnel can act on it. Actionable intelligence is at the core of any facility's security challenge. Without providing security personnel with a keen sense of situational awareness, organizations are more vulnerable to attack that will have a disruptive effect on society.

Leveraging Networked Video Solutions
An enterprise-class networked video management platform, designed to protect these physical systems and facilities, can be a valuable tool in the mitigation of critical infrastructure risk. To derive maximum ROI from such a solution, it should provide certain crucial features, including network intelligent video distribution, resilient system design, industry-leading wireless technology and an open, IT-friendly architecture.

These features will help personnel secure diverse critical infrastructure operations from government installations and interstate transportation networks, to energy producers, power grids and water purification, treatment and distribution facilities. A comprehensive, networked video solution transforms video into value, delivering actionable intelligence for deterring terrorism and crime, and promoting a safe environment for people and commerce.

Identifying Risks Before They Escalate
In today's critical infrastructure settings, best-in-class networked video solutions provide a platform for the deployment of sophisticated, integrated analytics technologies that are able to automatically identify suspicious behaviors before they escalate. Once detected, these security breaches trigger alerts and deliver the most critical and timely information to appropriate security personnel so an immediate action can be taken. These integrated analytics reduce the number of resources required to monitor and patrol expansive critical infrastructure perimeters while promoting strict adherence to security policies and procedures.

In order to reap the maximum benefit from video analytics, networked video solutions must include a custom rules engine that allows the user to define sensitive areas and determine what objects or movements constitute a threat to the organization.

Powerful analytics, combined with a sophisticated rules engine, are capable of differentiating between people and inanimate objects while initiating actions based on appropriate parameters of movement within sensitive locations and during specific times -- as defined by security policies. In addition, analytics facilitate the establishment of virtual perimeters around sensitive critical infrastructure components. Virtual perimeters are a series of tripwires or intangible boundaries that users define, using a point-and-click device, within various camera views. When a virtual boundary is crossed, an alert is generated and distributed according the rules defined by the organization.

For example, a virtual perimeter can be drawn in a camera view that monitors the entrance to a sensitive port, shipyard or harbor. When a vessel crosses this virtual tripwire between the hours of 12 and 5 a.m., an alert and the accompanying video feed is simultaneously distributed to a console in the port's central command center, to a video wall in a Coast Guard monitoring station and to a wireless device on the hip of an officer patrolling the vicinity where the vessel is detected. This example illustrates how analytics and the resulting video actionable intelligence can increase the efficiency of existing resources while facilitating new levels of inter-agency collaboration.

Along with movement, these analytics also must be capable of detecting people, objects or vehicles that remain in or near sensitive areas in excess of a certain length of time. This includes detecting assets that are moved from designated locations; suspicious objects, such as backpacks or briefcases, that are left in troubling locations; or exits that are blocked. Sophisticated, integrated analytics are the first line of defense to proactively identify risks and enable a response before a security breach occurs.

Reacting Effectively to an Emergency
Incidents like the London Underground bombings show that suspicious behavior does not always precede a security breach, making it hard to eliminate all risks. Video imagery of the four men in backpacks entering London's subway did not trigger any visual alarms. So, when a security breach in a critical infrastructure setting occurs, a timely and well-orchestrated response can mean the difference between a contained incident and a widespread disaster.

Networked video systems can deliver strong value by helping critical infrastructure security personnel maintain command and control during a security breach through enhanced situational awareness.

True situational awareness requires comprehensive access to data generated by disparate alarm systems, access control sensors and other surveillance systems throughout the perimeter. By integrating all of the information with video data, automatic actions can be triggered with the established security procedures, such as locking doors, raising barriers or adjusting camera angles, or modifying video recording rates and quality levels. To ensure simple integration of a networked video solution with other security systems throughout the perimeter, it must be built on open standards. Open standards allow for seamless communication and information mobility between all security systems within an organization.

In addition, as an incident unfolds, security personnel need to be able to track the event across a number of different camera views. Since cameras in critical infrastructure settings are often spread across expansive perimeters, networked video solutions may employ a method called scene stitching. Scene stitching involves combining the images from many cameras, spread across expansive locations to compose a real-time, single, wide format view. Scene stitching is crucial when the area being observed includes long, unmanned perimeters such as power grids or seaports. By allowing the user to view a mosaic image in a seamless single view, security personnel identify, track and address an assortment of subjects (people, vehicles) over several camera views without losing a line of sight.

As an incident is occurring within a critical infrastructure, a networked video solution must be capable of communicating with external systems in order to distribute valuable information to the people that need it most. By integrating with external systems, relevant data and video footage can be streamed in real time to emergency management and response centers, and federal and state law enforcement. This level of visibility ensures that appropriate resources are deployed in response to the emergency while reducing reaction time -- both crucial steps in mitigating risk in an emergency situation.

Facilitating Post-Event Investigations
Following an emergency, critical infrastructure security personnel need to rapidly understand what happened, why it happened and collaborate with law enforcement agencies to share this intelligence. A sophisticated, networked video solution helps security personnel reduce the time required to sift through thousands of hours of video to identify what's important to an investigation and then to send that information to the proper authorities. With the right solution, gathering case-related audio, video and data from an array of cameras and enterprise systems is as easy as searching within one database.

Intelligence gleaned from post-event investigations also can be incorporated when revising a critical infrastructure organization's security policies and procedures, strengthening it for future risk prevention.

A robust, open and comprehensive networked video solution can significantly enhance situational awareness for critical infrastructure organizations, positioning them to more effectively deter terrorism and crime, and promote a safe environment for people and commerce.